John F. Street - Biographical Details and Political Career

Biographical Details and Political Career

Street was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and grew up as a member of a farming household. He graduated from Conshohocken High School, received an undergraduate degree in English from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, and his law degree from Temple University, which he had to apply to several times before he was accepted. Following his graduation from law school, Street served clerkships with Common Pleas Court Judge Mathew W. Bullock, Jr. and with the United States Department of Justice from which he was quickly terminated for poor performance. In his first professional job, Street taught English at an elementary school and, later, at the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center. He also practiced law privately prior to entering into public service. He is married and has four children. He is also a practicing Seventh-day Adventist. His brother, Milton, is a former member of the state legislature, and two-time mayoral candidate.

Inspired by his brother's successful election in 1978, Street made his initial foray into elected politics in 1979, when he challenged incumbent Fifth District Councilman Cecil B. Moore. Moore was a popular and respected civil rights leader in the city who was active within the NAACP, and Street's decision to challenge him drew the ire of some. Moore was, however, in failing health. He initially sought to see-off the challenge from Street, but died before the May primary. Street won the election, and quelled some of the tensions over his original challenge to Moore by sponsoring a bill to rename the former Columbia Avenue in Moore's honor.

Street was chosen unanimously by members of the Council to serve as President in 1992, after incumbent Joe Coleman retired, and was re-elected in 1996. Street, working closely with former Mayor Ed Rendell, was instrumental in crafting and implementing a financial plan that passed Council unanimously, and turned a $250 million deficit into the largest surplus in city history. Despite decreasing the business and wage tax four years in a row, Philadelphia still has the 10th largest tax burden in the United States. This is due to the financial burden to run the city's prisons, pay debt service, and employee pensions and health benefits.

In 2001, he was named runner up "Politician of the Year" by PoliticsPA. He was named the 2003 Politician of the Year by the political website PoliticsPA, because "It takes an extremely shrewd and effective politician to turn an FBI bugging of the mayor's office into a positive but that's exactly what Mayor John Street did."

Street is very passionate on the importance of the Democratic Party. He once floated the possibility of being a candidate for statewide office in Pennsylvania. Since some recent corruption scandals, those prospects have diminished.

His relationship with the City Council was tenuous at best. He and former councilman Michael Nutter, who is the current Mayor of Philadelphia, often engaged in public political sparring. Regardless, Street ultimately agreed to a 2005 revision of Nutter's New York-style smoking ban (after much public criticism over his failure to support a smoking ban in Philadelphia).

The April 17, 2005, issue of Time Magazine listed him as one of the three worst big-city mayors in the United States.